Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Julius Ogamba has dismissed sentiments by a section of Kenyans and stakeholders who say that the capitation money sent to public schools is inadequate.

Speaking on Thursday, May 7 during the Second National Education Conference in Nakuru County, CS Ogamba insisted that the capitation fund is enough to provide for essential aspects of learning in schools.

The serious challenge, CS Ogamba said, was rogue heads of school who increase school fees through exorbitant and unnecessary levies in violation of circulars issued by the Ministry.

“The argument has been that the capitation money is not enough. For example, in boarding schools we charge the government approved fees, KSh53,000. This KSh53,000 is for boarding facilities, food and other things. Gov’t is paying for infrastructure, gov’t is paying for the teachers, gov’t is paying for books. Gov’t is paying for all these other things,” CS Ogamba said during a plenary session.

He blamed what he described as “unscrupulous people” who have introduced additional non-essential budgetary items into the budget of schools, thereby raising the cost of running those institutions.

He painted a vivid picture of this, narrating a case in point where a certain school has been embroiled in a crisis, with additional budgetary allocations meaning the school fees skyrocketed two-folds, from the KSh53,000 that the Ministry is aware to a whopping KSh120,000.

KSh26 million Dubai trip

“But when we looked through our quality assurance officers, they found several budget lines in the budget that are non-essential to what a school should be doing, for instance KSh26 million for going to Dubai, KSh13 million for speeches during prize-giving, KSh1.3 million for spiritual nourishment, and then you say money is not enough.”

Consequently, the Ministry has taken strict measures, ordering schools Boards of Management to be critical of the budgets they are passing.

“We are going to the BOMs and we are saying you must interrogate the budget that you are passing, what does it include? Is that something essential to learning? So that we do not increase abnormally the cost of running institutions. So the argument that capitation money is not enough is far-fetched.”

Stern warning

The CS warned that any school head who increases fees in violation of the circulars issued by the Ministry will face disciplinary action.

“It is a warning to each and every school head, if you are involved in undertaking, increasing the school fees using those levies that are against the circulars that we have issued, you will face the consequences.”

The Ministry has since engaged with Members of Parliament (MPs) to support this directive. “Members of Parliament have agreed to support us so that there is nowhere to run, once we get you you can’t go to your MP, or heads of tribes to say we are being targeted, we are going to deal with you because regulations are there.”

“How can you buy a bus for 10 years? Every year you are charging for a bus?” Ogamba concluded.